The chances of a bachelor or spinster for a long life are always less than those of a married person. Single people are more subject to nervous change and digestive troubles, and have a greater tendency to become despondent and melancholic. In bachelors, also, the acquisition of contagious diseases is a continual danger, and when they get older after their former merry lives, if merry it was, gloom invariably follows. Married life is the best guarantee for a long life and happy old age (see Chapter XLVIII). Before closing this chapter we would state that it was not our intention to give a description of the physical examination of a patient from the point of view of life insurance, but to indicate certain points which must guide us in forming an opinion on a person’s chance of longevity. All vital phenomena are under the influence of the internal secretions of the ductless glands, which govern every organ of our bodies. Therefore everything depends upon finding out the condition of these glands. Any well instructed physician can make a thorough examination of the different organs of the body for the purposes of life insurance; therefore we did not think it necessary to describe here the examination of the heart or lungs, etc. By such examination of the ductless glands we are not only able to forecast the approximate length of life, but we are able to judge a patient’s power to withstand disease when we are called to his bedside. If we find the ductless glands of such a patient (especially the thyroid and adrenals, kidneys and liver) in good working order, we can predict a successful and rapid termination to the malady. It is easy to understand that any one with a healthy skin, normally acting bowels, and plentiful urine, will more readily eliminate poisonous products than a person with a dry skin, constipation, and scanty urine. Also his tissues will be in better condition, and in the case of wounds granulations will more quickly form and fractures heal readily with firm callus. Such an examination as the above can, however, also help us, as we readily shall understand, to foretell the chances of a person as to the prolongation of youth and the retardation of old age. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VIII. ON THE CAUSATION OF OLD AGE.